Oswego, NY — The world’s plastic pollution problem may now have a solution.
According to an article released in the academic journal “Science”, Japan may have discovered a plastic eating bacteria strain.
This bacteria strain can break down the most common plastic, called Polyethylene Terephthalate. It is often found in packaged bottled drinks, household cleaners, and beauty cosmetics. These items can be completely broken down by the strain.
The bacteria strand could mean good news for the environment because about a third of all plastic packaging does not end up in recycling; it ends up out in the environment. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, by 2050 more plastic will be in the oceans than fish.
Written By: Kirby Socker
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International student prepare for December graduation
By Fan Shi
OSWEGO, NY– SUNY Oswego’s career services held a graduate school fair and career fair to help students prepare for their December graduation and some international students were searching for a promising future.
International student Zhixing Zhai said that he is nervous for graduation and hopes to find an opportunity that will allow him to stay in the United States.
“You can see a lot of opportunities and chances here because there are so many universities. But you are not sure which one you are going to get in eventually. And this process made me very stressful,” Zhai said.
Other international students said they are struggling to find jobs. South Korean Senior Soyoung Moon said she finds it is difficult to accomplish a perfect resume.
“The resume structure between our country and the United States is very different.” Soyoung said.
SUNY Oswego career services offers help to students trying to put together a resume. They have a resource room where someone works with students in resume writing, guiding them towards internships and doing the same with job opportunities. Some of their other services include taking professional photos for LinkedIn profiles and helping students plan their future.
SUNY Oswego director of Career Service Gary Morris said they are improving their services for international students.
“We have some staff members who are kind of specialize to the systems we can give advantage to the international students. We try to stay a breath of the changing landscape of visa. We explore different products and software online like going global that details information that literally hundreds of countries out there to help our professional staff and our students staff better understand and be sense to the culture differences in different countries,” Morris said.
For more information on SUNY Oswego’s Career Services, visit https://www.oswego.edu/career-services/.
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Student Association Update: March 1st
The Student Association held their weekly meeting of the Senate on Tuesday evening making it the sixth meeting of the Spring semester. The number of senators required to begin the meeting were met and following the approval of the agenda and minutes, the meeting was well under way.
The National Alliance of Black School Educators (NABSE), were the first and only guests to the Senate for the evening. NABSE is a community service driven organization, working to bring awareness to inequalities of education. Their first project will be shipping school supplies to underprivileged children in Haiti and will be tabling every Tuesday in the Marano Campus Center to raise money and collect supplies. They are also looking to hold educational programs that shed light on the mission of their club, but NABSE do not currently have the funds to support the programs they wish to hold. They presented their budget to the Senate asking for funds to help with funds the organization needs. Two senators will be writing a budget and bill, which will be voted on at a later time and date.
Following the guest to the Senate, the meeting moved swiftly to executive reports. Emily Nassir, SA President was the first to deliver her executive report in which she shared updates on current projects she has been working on. Nassir said that the website for SA is currently being worked on and she will have more updates as there is more progression in the making and launching of the new SA website. SA has paid for the student discount app which will be renewed shortly and will give students access to partnered businesses in town, who provide discounts to students at their place of operation. Nassir also revealed new ideas that she wishes to begin working on such as, getting more involved in opening week on campus in the fall, as well as homecoming held in October.
Shelby Gallaro, SA Vice President was next to deliver her executive report. Gallaro shared with Senate her current project. She is working in a new Pay policy for senators which could potentially go into effect in the fall. This new pay system would allow senators to directly earn money as opposed to the current system which is done through dock pay. Following Gallaro’s report, SA Director of Finance, Matthew Peters took the floor to deliver his executive report. Peters stated that all of the requested budgets for next semester have been submitted by the clubs and organizations on campus. SA will begin to look through the requested budgets and will be working on them starting the beginning of next week. There were no new updates on OzFest, but Peters assured that he will be updating the Senate as new information comes in and planning progresses.
In Hall Council reports, senators shared success of programs their halls held this past week as well as plans for new programs in the future. Cayuga Hall had a great turnout for their movie themed laker night. Funnelle hosted a recycling event “Going Green for Green”, in which they collected many recyclables which will be used to help future programs in their hall. Johnson is currently working on their event with all four lakeside dorms, where students will be able to participate in intramural sports as a friendly competition between all the halls. Johnson will be bringing new updates as planning for the event advances.
There were no special orders for the evening, so the meeting moved to the first and only general order for the evening. Rules and judiciary proposed a bill that would amend the vacancy protocol in the constitution that SA is required to follow. The bill to amend the vacancy protocol passed by general consent.
Following the only general order for the evening, the meeting was adjourned. SA meets every Tuesday in Lanigan 106 at 6pm. If students, organizations or clubs have any questions, concerns or proposals, they are encouraged to attend these meetings, as they are all open to the public.
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Oswego Opera Theatre performs “The Mikado”
By Micah Pasinski
OSWEGO, N.Y.– The Oswego Opera Theatre presented a special performance of the Gilbert and Sullivan comedic opera, “The Mikado” on November 11th and 12th. The Mikado was the ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations written between the famous musical duo, Arthur Sullivan and W.S Gilbert. It has remained incredibly popular to this day since it’s 1885 opening in London with many professional theatre companies still performing it.
Gilbert and Sullivan’s comedic opera is a British piece set in Japan. This was done because the creators thought Japan was a far enough place away from their homeland of Britain to give them the freedom to satirize Victorian British politics and institutions of the time, by disguising them as Japanese.
The Oswego Opera Theatre took inspiration from the play’s original satirical nature and used the production as a way in which to poke fun at a lot of what has been dominating our political news lately. They even went so far as to having jokes pertaining to the Trump-Russia Scandal and a character in the show who was strikingly similar in appearance to 2016 Democratic Party Presidential Nominee, Hillary Clinton.
SUNY Oswego Orchestral and Artistic Director, and Conductor of “The Mikado” Dr. Juan Francisco La Manna said that the political aspect is all a part of what makes the show still relevant and enjoyable for audiences to see today.
“The great thing is that it can translate into today’s politics and world very well, so we took probably ninety percent of the substance of the script and adapted it so it would become really relevant,” said La Manna.
“The Mikado” is known as one of the most played musical theatre pieces in history. It was even estimated that before the end of 1885, its premiere year, 150 companies were already producing the opera.
